I set up my bandsaw for some ripping operations on my lunch today. After some considerable tweaking, I can get perfectly straight rips. However the cut quality sucks. My only 2 blades are an Olson allpro 1/4” and an Olson allrpo 5/8” skip tooth resaw blade. I am obviously using the 5/8 blade, but as I mentioned, the cut quality is nasty. Is there a bandsaw blade that leaves a reasonably smooth finish after ripping?

Is the cut rough or wavy? If you are getting a wavy cut and you centered the blade on the wheel try pushing the blade back on the wheel so the gullet of the blade is centered on the wheel. It will give more support to the teeth and will stop the blade from rocking, which cause a wavy cut.

Hey Joe, I have been using the Wood Slicer blades too. I just love it.

Now you are asking what is the smoothest cut? This blade does not give me the smoothest cut. That is not what I am looking for. I want a repeatable and accurate cut that I can trust. I can slice off 1/8” thick by 8” tall maple with ease time after time. Without getting hot. They are a little rough, but that is what a low tooth count blade will give you.

What I want it for is resaw, and not rip. I guess the only difference is the thickness of the cut. ??

Chuck, I am getting a wavy cut. It’s slightly back of center, but I can move it back a little more if need be. I may try that.

Also on the guide bearings – how close should they be? there are many schools of thought. I am not getting any drift, however I may just be lucky because my fence is not perfectly square to the blade anymore. I shimmed the front rail to bring it down a bit.

technically I don’t think that’s possible because of the teeth geometry differences between the TS (carbide precision ground) vs. the band (teeth with SET in both direction, blade is flexible even with high tension), you would always have a lesser cut quality on the BS compared to a RIP blade on a TS. TS are originally a ripping machine – thats what they are designed to do. Bandsaws are a multiverse machine that can also rip to a certain degree (depth limitation and cut quality limits)